There’s a two-horse race for mayor in Manitoba’s wheat city. Incumbent Jeff Fawcett is up against another political veteran, Len Isleifson. “I think we’ve done a lot of work, we’ve done a lot of heavy lifting,” Fawcett told CTV News on Tuesday. “We recognize that our city is growing a great deal, we need to get ourselves into a better financial position.” Some of that heavy lifting included property tax increases which were higher than Brandon residents were used to following a third-party review. Fawcett says the revenue is needed to pay for key infrastructure, after years of depleting reserves and low or frozen taxes. “You got some that will say, you know, they’re high, we got to start bringing them down, which is sort of our goal, but an equal amount or more that will say you guys didn’t tax the way you were kind of suggested to,” Fawcett said. Isleifson has experience around the council table too. He’s a former Brandon councillor and PC MLA for Brandon East. “I do have that connection with both the provincial and federal governments through my role in the legislature, and you know, I held some key roles in the legislature as well,” Isleifson said. Isleifson says he wants to see Brandon be more aggressive in attracting new businesses and he is critical of a proposed rate increase for development fees, which pays for related water, sewer and roads. “I think that’s something that’s concerning to a lot of folks, especially on the lower income level where they’re purchasing mobile homes instead of houses,” Isleifson said. The hope is the two candidates can draw interest from voters. In 2022, Fawcett ran away with the race, and voter turnout was below 18 per cent. Brandon University political science professor Kelly Saunders says at least this is a contested race. “Hopefully it will give people the motivation that they need to learn a little bit more about the issues,” Saunders said. “Brandon, we’re facing the same kind of issues that Winnipeg is facing.”
